Worlds
and its two moons seen though a River Tethys farcaster.]] For a complete list of worlds, see Worlds (category), or the List of All Worlds. Introduction The stories of the Hyperion Cantos take place in a rich variety of worlds. The characters of the novels take the readers on incredible journeys to the many places conquered by humanity in the distant future. Most of them are planets, but the Worlds of the Hyperion Cantos also include moons, orbital colonies, terraformed asteroids, and some fantastically engineered places such as the Startree Biosphere and other Ouster/Templar feats of bioastroengineering. Human Exploration and Colonization ]] By the time of the events described in the Cantos, humanity had explored over eight thousand worlds, a large majority of which were explored very cursorily. Of the eight thousand known worlds, less than 400 had been colonized by humanity. Of these, 176 were fully integrated members of the WorldWeb. The remaining 200 were colonial and protectorate Outback worlds. Nine were especially unique Labyrinthine Worlds. Hyperion, 1995. 77. Humanity colonized planets and moons of many types, not just those resembling Old Earth, and in different stages of terraforming (or none). Desert and stone worlds such as Hebron were turned into home for entire populations. Ice planets like Sol Draconi Septem were warmed up and made livable. Other worlds had continents, oceans of liquid water and temperate weather and were quite similar to Old Earth, such as Hyperion. Water worlds like Maui Covenant and Mare Infinitus were taken over by people and their cultures, who became completely adapted to the planetwide oceans. Some planets were covered with prairies and grasslands the size of continents, like Grass or Kastrop-Rauxel. Others, green paradises of worldwide jungles and forests, like God’s Grove or Garden. There were also worlds of enormous mountain ranges jutting high into the sky, piercing out of the atmosphere, as is the case of T’ien Shan. By the time of the Pilgrimage, humanity had explored most of the worlds on our arm of the Milky Way.The Rise of Endymion, 1995, Ch. 21. Almost 90% or Earth-like or terraformed inhabited worlds had day lengths that fell within three hours of the Old Earth standard dayEndymion, 1995, Ch. 21. Most of the Earth-like worlds that were high on the Solmev Scale had been terraformed and seeded with Old Earth lifeforms, from bacteria to more advanced forms of life. Web Era ]] 'The worlds under the Hegemony’s control were either part of the WorldWeb, connected via farcaster and fatline to the rest of the human civilization, or were part of the Outback or protectorate.' Those worlds chartered into the Hegemony were fully accessible via farcasters and fatline, and were commercially connected to the rest of the Web. Tourism flowed among the Web worlds, facilitated by instantaneous travel and the hundred-planet-spanning touristic structures such as the River Tethys and the Grand Concourse. During the time of the Pilgrimage, notable worlds that were part of the Web include Tau Ceti Center, Barnard’s World, Maui Covenant, and Lusus, among many others.' The Outback or protectorate worlds had limited connection to the Web planets, sometimes linked by a single farcaster to an entire planet, in addition to space travel. The most notable one is Hyperion, central to the plot and stage for so many events throughout the series. Other Outback worlds, such as arid Parvati, were not as Earthlike as Hyperion.' Some protectorate worlds held military and strategic importance, or were centers of military training, such as Madhya, Lee Three, and the Lambert Ring territories.' Pax Era' as seen in the cover of The Rise of Endymion]] The Fall of the farcasters caused great disruption to planetary relations and completely reshaped the human interstellar landscape. Planets that were once central, as Tau Ceti Center, became backwater worlds. The industrial worlds without their own agriculture suffered famines and riots.' During the events described in Endymion and The Rise of Endymion, the Pax exercised significant influence on human worlds. Many of the former Hegemony worlds saw large portions of its population convert to Christianity and were under Pax control. Pacem was the center of Pax power and seat of the Vatican. Worlds of importance to the story line in this period include Mare Infinitus, Sol Draconi Septem, and T’ien Shan.' Labyrinthine Worlds Nine of all the planets known to the Hegemony were considered Labyrinthine Worlds - they were all Earth-like worlds, and each contained an enormous maze of tunnels carved underground by unknown Builders. Hyperion, 1995. 77. The text identifies three of these worlds: Hyperion; Svoboda; and Armaghast. Ouster Worlds''' with Aenea on the Startree Biosphere]] The Ousters went further than just colonizing planets. They became adapted to conquer space itself. Entire colonies of them lived a nomadic life, going on long voyages from system to system, away from the domains of the Hegemony, and without resorting to farcasting. Having physically adapted to life in low-g environs, the Ousters harvested comets and made worlds out of asteroids and space with abundant use of containment fields and terraforming. They engineered the Orbital Forests, and created a living Dyson sphere, an ecosystem encircling an entire star: the Startree Biosphere.''' World Classifications See also * For a complete list of worlds, see Worlds (category). * Planets (page) and Planets (category). References Category:Worlds Category:Places & Geography __NOEDITSECTION__